


Partners

by storm_aurora



Series: Dexholder Drabble Challenge [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, angry pearl, but called comedy routine in this fic bc that's how Viz does it, just in case you were concerned, manzai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24580636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_aurora/pseuds/storm_aurora
Summary: Diamond and Pearl receive some harsh critiques of their comedy routine. Pearl doesn't take it well.
Relationships: Diamond & Pearl (Pokemon Adventures)
Series: Dexholder Drabble Challenge [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1736971
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	Partners

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Pearl!! I wanted to write a ficlet with him for his birthday and since I was having trouble deciding on a plot, I decided I'd kill two birds with one stone and make it part of the Dexholder Drabble Challenge! I chose Diamond and Pearl as the characters and I got the prompt "drive". Without further ado, enjoy!

Pearl stormed out of the Hearthome City Contest Hall, holding his arms stiffly at his sides and his hands clenched into tight fists. He could hear Diamond somewhere behind him, calling his name, but he ignored his friend’s calls. He didn’t know where he was going – he just knew that he couldn’t stand to be in that hall a second longer. He ran into a couple of people and didn’t bother to apologize to them. They’d think him rude, but why should he care? Why should the opinions of random strangers matter to him so much?

Why _did_ the opinions of strangers matter to him so much?

Feeling like a worse and worse person with every collision, Pearl finally ducked into an empty alleyway. There were a few garbage cans and a dumpster lining the alley’s walls. Well, at least he was in good company.

He grabbed the lid of one of the trash cans and hurled it into the opposite wall. It hit the wall with a loud smack and bounced on the ground, rolling away before finally settling down with a hollow clatter.

Pearl felt hollow; throwing the trash can lid wasn’t nearly as satisfying as he thought it would be. He picked it up and slammed it back onto the trash can that it came from. Then, he leaned back against the wall and slowly slid down it until he was sitting with his hands wrapped around his legs, his drive to destroy something finally dissipating. He buried his face in his knees.

That was the position that Diamond found him in a minute later. “Pearl!” his friend gasped, panting heavily. “Are…are you okay?”

_What a dumb question,_ Pearl thought. _I’m not_ okay _. You don’t just get a critique like that and be_ okay.

What he said was, “I’m fine.”

He waited in silence for Diamond to say something else – a joke, a platitude, a cheerful remark. Something to try to make light of the situation that Pearl would just brush off because he didn’t want to hear it. But his friend just stood there, totally silent except for his heavy breaths. Eventually, Pearl heard the swish of clothing rubbing against clothing, and something brushed against his left shoulder and then stayed there. He glanced to his left.

Diamond was sitting against the wall next to him, shoulder pressed against Pearl’s. “I’m sorry, Pearl,” he said softly.

Pearl looked away, scoffing. “Why are you sorry? This is my fault.”

“Pearl, that’s not true…”

“It _is_ true, and you know it,” he snapped. “ _I’m_ the one who writes the scripts for our comedy routines. _I’m_ the one who insisted that we audition for the Hearthome Comedy Showcase. _I’m_ the one who opened up our routine to brutally honest critique and _I’m_ the reason why those three judges ripped our routine apart!”

“No, Pearl. Don’t do that to yourself,” Diamond insisted. “It’s just as much my fault–”

“You did everything you were supposed to, Dia! You didn’t mess up–”

“I messed up just as much as you messed up!” Diamond exclaimed, and Pearl finally shut up and looked at him. “You wrote the script, but I edited it. You wanted to do this audition, so I talked to Platinum about getting us a spot on the audition list. If I wasn’t comfortable with brutally honest critique, I would have said so. Those critiques apply just as much to me as they do to you.”

Pearl stared at him, wide-eyed. He was so used to being in charge, being the organizer, being the one who made sure that everything got done. And he remembered, of course he remembered, their fight in Celestic Town, where Diamond had called Pearl out for bossing him around all the time. But somehow, it had never occurred to him that Diamond would feel just as responsible for the success or failure of their comedy routines as Pearl did. That if Diamond didn’t think something was a good idea for their act, he wouldn’t just let Pearl do it.

Pearl wasn’t the _leader._ He was a _partner_ , and Diamond was his other half.

Somehow, knowing that this failure wasn’t _entirely_ on him…it made Pearl feel like a small weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It was still there, but the burden wasn’t nearly as heavy as it was before.

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Pearl said, swallowing hard. “It’s just…it hurts to hear that your work…your dream that you’ve been pursuing your whole life…that you thought it was good, and it turns out it’s awful.”

Diamond nodded. “Yeah. I know,” he said, and Pearl knew he knew, because this was Diamond’s dream, too. But it felt good to say it out loud. “But it’s still our dream, right?”

“It’s still our dream,” Pearl agreed. “We can’t give up on it.”

Pearl got to his feet and offered a hand to Diamond. He took it, and Pearl pulled him up. “We know what we need to improve now. So let’s start improving it,” Pearl declared.

Diamond blinked. “Right now?”

“Yes, right now! What better time than the present?”

“Uh, maybe tomorrow!?”

Pearl grinned and gave his friend a playful nudge. “I’m just messing with you. We didn’t even grab the critique sheets before we left,” he said. “We’ll look over them in more depth tomorrow. Sounds like a plan?”

“Sounds like a plan!”

The two boys left the alleyway in far higher spirits than they were when they entered it, grinning and laughing like nothing had changed. Except one thing had changed: they were both more committed to their dream of becoming great comedians than ever before.

**Author's Note:**

> The real villain of this story is those judges who should've been way nicer delivering their critiques. These kids are, like, 12. Be nice.
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!! <3


End file.
